Rumble Roses for the Playstation 2 was a simple, basically well received, all female wrestling game. Someone, somewhere made the assumption that the crowd of gamers who love the frenetic action and rather bouncy upper anatomy of Dead or Alive would love a slower, wrestling driven game with an excess of attention focusedd on buttocks-modeling. I\'m not sure I follow this logic, and I wasn\'t convinced that better butts makes a better wrestling game.

Rumble Roses : XX for the XBox 360 feels more like Rumble Roses 1.5 than a proper sequel. For one thing, it\'s almost a given these days that fighting and wrestling games introduce new characters as they mature. Rumble Roses XX features the same cast of characters (with more or less the same moves) as its PS2 predecessor, and again offers two variations on each character, one good, and one evil. What XX does offer up is a \"superstar\" variation of each character that can be unlocked, but this is problematic in and of itself because the \"superstar\" variants are so much more powerful than their good/evil counterparts, that there is little reason to use the base characters once their bigger, badder sisters are available.

Rumble Roses and Rumble Roses: XX both put themselves firmly into the THQ school of wrestling games: slow action, slow movement, and a general tendency towards insane power moves. This provides a pretty stark contrast to the more energetic approach of the classic late 80s and 90s coin-op arcade wrestling games they developed, so I can only assume they are with Rumble Roses : XX going after a completely different market.

Rumble Roses : XX\'s single player GUI is downright confusing. The game forces you to pick a character before you even get to the main title screen. This caused a bit of confusion when I sat down with GF!\'s Shawn Rider and attempted to play a multiplayer match the first day I played the game - it seemed quite unintuitive to have to select a character, only to have to select another one when we were were actually about to tussle. If this were an isolated occurance it would hardly be worth mentioning, but it\'s indicitive of navigation problems across the board. This is the only game I can think of where I actually had to resort to the manual just to make sure I understood the GUI.

The standard single player wrestling mode did not appeal to me very much after a few fights. Above all else, the matches take several (maybe an average of 3) minutes, which is about 1/3 longer than I generally have patience for. I\'m quite aware that wrestling games typically have longer matches than fighting games, but the overall hulkishly slow pacing of Rumble Roses : XX compounded this into a flaw. Some moves literally take so long to execute that you will find yourself doing nothing with the controller for some period of time. This was distracting to me.

Playing online or against friends locally proved somewhat more satisfying than playing against the computer, which is pretty rote about its selection of moves and the frequency with which it counters. However, I was still bothered by what felt like very clunky, unresponsive control. I went as far as soliciting the opinion of a dyed-in-the-wool wrestling game addict who\'s beaten everything from Wrestlemania! to Def Jam: Vendetta, and he agreed with my position that the controls were \"annoyingly sluggish\". This is the first time I have solicited an outside opinion in the process of writing a review, and I did so only because while I did not have the time or resources to go back and play every wrestling game made since 1988, I had access to someone who had played most of them, so it seemed reasonable to garner their opinion (of my own opinion). I was quite relieved when he agreed with me, as otherwise I would probably still be playing Legends of Wrestling and trying to decide if my comment about the speed of controls here is justified - however, I believe firmly that it is.

There are two game modes that added a bit of fun to the formula for me. One of them is the \"Queen\'s Match\" where the loser has to \"perform\" for the winner. At the beginning, only one or two penalties (such as a salsa dance) are available, with more unlocking later in the game. The only problem with this is that it occurs in the form of largely noninteractive sequences (unless you deem camera control to be \'interactivity\') that happen after the match. Along the same lines, each match starts with very, very long intro sequences of the characters entering the arena in a variety of ways that are all very different, but all designed to put as much digital ass in your face as possible before the fighting begins. I will say that the buttocks-jiggle physics in this game are more advanced than in any other, even Dead or Alive 4. If that\'s all you\'re interested in, this game is definitely for you.

There is also a \"street fight\" mode that I found interesting in that it doesn\'t play by the same rules as the rest of the game. No pinfall is required to win, you just need to knock your opponent out by depleting their life meter. This mode seems to move a bit quicker than the rest of the game, too, giving it a more \"fighting\" feel than \"wrestling\". Sadly, it becomes a fighting mode mired in the control scheme of a wrestling game, and the novelty wears off fairly quickly. I will note that this was the one mode of the game where I was able to consistantly win against my aforementioned wrestling-game-addicted friend, which for me validates my belief that it\'s not just a matter of a lack of pinfall moves that set this mode apart from the rest of the game.

Rumble Roses : XX is by no means a great wrestling game, but it is the only wrestling game presently available for the XBox 360. My prediction is that the two markets for this game are wrestling game addicts who can\'t wait a moment longer for someone to make a more legitimte entry into the genre on the 360, and somewhat creepy gamers who really, really enjoy digital booty.

If you\'re a gamer with a female friend who is, shall we say, open minded and \"bootylicious\", and for whatever reason you own or have rented Rumble Roses: XX, I suggest that you conduct the following experiment. Play a two player match, and do whatever it takes to set up a situation where one fighter smacks the ass of the other fighter. Pay very close attention to the resulting jiggle. Then, have your (open minded) female companion whack herself on the rear (or, allow you to do so, in the case that she\'s EXTREMELY open minded), and pay close attention to the jiggle. You may see a shocking similarity. If you conduct this experiment, and have access to some kind of DV cam or webcam to capture the action, please feel free to send the results on to me (for purely scientific reasons, of course). If you\'re willing to do all that, this game is, without a doubt, made for you.

On the other hand, if the previous paragraph has left you feeling somewhat uncomfortable - take a pass on Rumble Roses : XX, as it will leave you with that same slightly curious sensation of revulsion. Rumble Roses : XX is in no way sexy - in fact, I think it\'s less sexy than DOA4 (which is also pretty silly from the point of view of eroticism). The best thing I can say for the sexual content in Rumble Roses is that it\'s executed in a manner that is both humorous, and somewhat skeevy.

It is no coincidence that the tail end of this review (which is usually reserved for a sort of summary) is instead concerned with the tail ends of the characters in Rumble Roses : XX. Without the booty-jiggle, this game would be little more than a barebones wrestling game.